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Wills are one of the most important sources for the family historian, and the originals of all the wills indexed here are held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives. Copies of these wills can be ordered online, via the indexes.
What do these records tell you? The York Peculiars Probate index gives:
Example index records Example 1.  ABBOT, James, butcher,,Haxby,1753,W. Inv. B,,Strensall This refers to a will proved in the Prebendal Court of Strensall in 1753. The documents include the will, and inventory of the testator's property, and a bond (required from the executor to ensure that the duties were carried out properly. Example 2. Carnabie,Isabell and Agnes ? Daus of John C",late par of St John ,,Sep 17 1593,Tui,f.5,Hexamshire This entry refers to a tuition agreement, relating to the guardianship of the daughters, Isabell and Agnes, of John Carnabie of the parish of St John in Hexhamshire (now in Northumberland). The daughters must therefore have been under 12 years of age. (The index also contains records referring to a later tuition agreement concerning the same girls, plus one of the same year relating to what is probably another sister, Anne.) More information on the York Peculiars Probate Index This database makes available for the first time online, and exclusively on British Origins, a comprehensive index to over 25,000 wills and other documents proved in the peculiar courts of the province of York between 1456 and 1858. All the original documents are held by the Borthwick Institute. About Church of England Courts and Peculiars For many of the people referred to, multiple documents are available, for example multiple wills, will plus codicils, inventories of the testator's property are particularly common and there are also many tuition agreements concerning children. The different documents are listed in the index. Copies of the source documents may be ordered online. The records of 54 peculiar courts are included in the index. Details of the courts are shown in this table. Probate before 1858 Prior to 1858, wills were proved in an ecclesiastical court. Which court dealt with a particular will depended on where property was held. Parishes of the Church of England were grouped into archdeaconries, and a group of archdeaconries formed a diocese (ie the area of a bishop's jurisdiction). Each diocese belonged either to the ecclesiastical province of York or of Canterbury. The province of York had jurisdiction in the counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Westmorland and Yorkshire; Canterbury had jurisdiction over the rest of England and Wales. If a person's property lay wholly within one archdeaconry, the will was generally proved in that archdeacon's court. But if property worth £5 or more were owned elsewhere the will would be proved in a higher court, that of a bishop or archbishop. If property were owned in more than one archdeaconry in the same diocese, the will would be proved in the bishop's court, referred to as a Commissary Court. If the property were owned in more than one diocese, the will would be proved in one of the two archbishops' prerogative courts. If the property were all within the province of York, probate would be dealt with by the Prerogative Court of York (PCY), otherwise by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). So if property were owned in both provinces, probate was dealt with by PCC, the senior court. The archbishop of Canterbury was also bishop of the diocese of Canterbury, and the bishop's court for Canterbury was called the "Court of the Commissary General; similarly for the diocese of York, where the bishop's court was called the "Consistery Court of York". Some parishes were situated in one archdeaconry or diocese but subject to the jurisdiction of another court (that of archdeaconry, diocese, Dean & Chapter of a cathedral, or a local lord of the manor - manorial court). Such parishes were called Peculiars. So if a person held property in a Peculiar parish, the will may have been proved in the Peculiar Court of that parish (if the property were wholly within that parish), or the court of another jurisdiction (if some of the property were held elsewhere). A Peculiar Court may be a:
Places While the overwhelming majority of the documents relate to persons with property in Yorkshire, though testators were associated with other places in Britain also, and some died overseas (eg East Indies, Gibraltar), or at sea. The references to place primarily relate to property held there, but also to the place where the person died, or where they may have lived. Click here to find which court dealt with a particular place. Language of the documents The first will in English at the Borthwick Institute is dated 1443. By the early 1500s most wills were in English, and by 1558 it is almost certain that a will will be in English. Until 1732 the Act Books entries (which contain a brief outline of the grant of probate) were written in Latin, and Latin continued until then to be used for legal parts of documents even if the bulk of the document were written in English. Contents of the database The database records provide the following information:
Ordering hard copies of original documents You can order a hard copy of any document by simply clicking of the "Add to cart" button alongside each record. The cost of each hard document, including first class or airmail postage, is £10. Other "York Series" Probate Indexes All the indexes to probate documents held at the Borthwick Institute will become available online on British Origins. In addition to the indexes to the Peculiar Courts, an index to the Medieval probate records of the Prerogative & Exchequer Courts are currently online.
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